Lights, camera, action! Final Centers and Corridors video released; more videos solicited for April film festival

Most Popular

Most Recent

Metro and others fund Comprehensive Plan Implementation projects and work on Powell-Division

The final step in the Comprehensive Plan Update process will be the adoption of priority measures to implement the new Comprehensive Plan, including a package of City Code and zoning map amendments. The scope of this task will be confirmed in late 2013, and work will proceed through July 2015.

Thanks to a grant from our partner agency Metro, plus additional funding from the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Department of Land Conversation and Development, several Comprehensive Plan implementation projects have been identified and advisory committees are being recruited (see Comprehensive Plan Update story), including:

Transportation System Plan and Related Work. The Transportation System Plan (TSP) is the long-range plan to guide transportation investments in Portland. The TSP Update will also satisfy Metro obligations to ensure consistency with the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP).

Mixed Use Zones Project. The Mixed Use Zones Project will develop new mixed use planning and zoning designations that can be applied to implement the Centers and Corridors concepts that emerged with the Portland Plan and are proposed in the Comprehensive Plan. The project will focus on the city’s commercial and central employment zones as well as the places outside the Central City where these zones are applied. This project is supported by a Metro Construction Excise Tax (CET) Grant. The City was also recently awarded a State Transportation and Growth Management (TGM) Grant to examine parking management policy in these same areas. That grant is being managed by the Bureau of Transportation but will be closely coordinated with the Mixed Use Zones Project.

Additionally, members of the former Economic Development Policy Expert Group (PEG), the Watershed Health and Environment PEG and other community members have formed an Industrial Land and Watershed Health Working Group. The Working Group has been advising BPS on the Comprehensive Plan policies and implementation approaches to meet both the economic development and watershed health goals in the Portland Harbor and Columbia Corridor industrial areas. This work could lead to changes in the zoning map or development code for prime industrial employment land.

Next up: Powell-Division corridor

Metro is also funding the Inner Powell-Outer Division and Development Project, which is not part of Comprehensive Plan implementation. This project will be similar to the Barbur Concept Plan in that it will create a vision and development strategy for key investment focus areas and identify a preferred transit mode and alignment — in preparation for high capacity transit along the corridor.